Royal Wedding: The friends who cemented their love

AMONG all the dignitaries and crowned heads who will be found filling the pews at The Wedding of the Year next summer will be Kate and William’s own inner circle. Their invitations, engraved with the ER cypher, will certainly be considered a reward for their years of loyalty to the couple and their extreme discretion.

A trusted band knew that William and Kate were meant to be together []

This trusted band are mainly long-term friends from school and university who knew, despite the blips, that William and Kate were always going to end up together. More importantly, despite the temptations, they have never let the couple down by being indiscreet.

From a landed family in Kent, Guy plays the role of court jester. For a while there was concern about his “bad boy” influence as he was the mischievous one who organised the boisterous, vodka-fuelled nights beloved by both princes and he took much of the flak when Harry was exposed for smoking joints. Kate initially disapproved of William’s friendship with him but he’s calmed down and she’s warmed to him since. A former student at Cirencester Agricultural College, Pelly is now co-owner of the Mayfair club Mahiki, one of the boys’ favourite party venues, and he’s an investor in the Punchbowl, Guy Ritchie’s London pub.

FERGUS BOYD

An Eton contemporary, Boyd had the room next door to William in the St Salvator’s halls of residence in St Andrews, later moving with him, Kate and Olivia Bleasdale, to 13a Hope Street in their second year and then into a rented farmhouse outside the town for their final two. Kate spent a fortnight with Boyd and other friends at his parents’ French holiday home during her 2007 split from William. The son of a Wiltshire solicitor, Boyd met his Parisian wife Sandrine Janet in the same History of Art lecture hall in which Wills and Kate spent so much time together at the beginning of their studies.

JAMES MEADE

A friend of William’s from Eton and likely to be one of his ushers. The son of Olympic medal-winning equestrian Richard Meade, it was at his brother Harry’s “colonials and natives” 22nd birthday party on the family’s Wiltshire estate that the infamous pictures of Prince Harry dressed as a Nazi were taken. It was James who accompanied Kate to the Badminton Horse trials in 2007 during her break from William but they are platonic friends.

EMILIA D’ERLANGER

Emilia was at Marlborough with Kate and had also known William before all three went to St Andrews. She was the one to introduce them despite having been one of several girls the prince invited on a Greek Islands cruise before he started at university, prompting rumours about the pair’s own romantic involvement. She now runs her own interior design business, D’Erlanger And Sloan, and seven months ago William and Kate attended her marriage to green energy specialist David Jardine-Paterson.

HOLLY BRANSON

This blonde cracker and her brother Sam have been friends of the princes since childhood as Diana was close to their father, billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who placed his tropical hideaway, Necker Island, at her disposal. Likes to help the princes to down their favourite Crackberry cocktails at Boujis and Mahiki and she’s also close to Kate, offering her a girls’ getaway holiday on Necker Island during her split from Wills. After training as a doctor, she left the NHS to help run her father’s Virgin empire.

JAMIE MURRAY WELLS

The Old Harrovian has known William since they played together as young boys in Gloucestershire (his family’s farm borders Prince Charles’ Highgrove estate). A successful entrepreneur, having founded the online spectacles store GlassesDirect.com when just 21, Murray Wells was the person Kate Middleton turned to for advice when her fledgling children’s clothing business ran into debt.

THOMAS VAN STRAUBENZEE

The good-humoured nephew of Diana’s childhood friend Willie Van Straubenzee, Thomas went to Ludgrove prep school with William and is his oldest friend. He’s been skiing in Zermatt with the prince and accompanied him on his official visit to New Zealand in 2005. Also, one of the few friends invited into the Royal Box at the 2007 Concert in memory of Diana. His brother Henry was killed in a car crash eight years ago and both princes have helped to raise money for the memorial fund established in his honour.

OLIVIA BEASDALE

A former pupil of Westonbirt, the girls’ boarding school close to Highgrove, this 28-year-old blonde was a member of Kate’s gang at St Andrews. The two girls both studied History of Art and shared a house in their first year. Pretty, sensible and loyal, she’s been at Kate and Pippa Middleton’s side at plenty of parties. She worked for a hedge fund before joining a Mayfair headhunting firm as office manager.

PETER PHILLIPS

Princess Anne’s rough and tumble son, he provided rock solid support to William after the death of Diana. It was at Peter’s Windsor wedding to his Canadian girlfriend Autumn two years ago that Kate was finally presented to the Queen by William. Now lives in Hong Kong where he works as a manager for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

LUKE TOMLINSON

A playboy with dashing looks and endless charm, Luke Tomlinson is William’s best friend in the polo world and is now vice captain of the England team. William and Harry often join him for chukkas at the Beaufort Polo Club in Gloucestershire run by his father Simon Tomlinson, a former Household Cavalry officer. He feels strongly about country sports and in 2004 he was in the gang which stormed the House of Commons against the anti-hunting legislation.

ALICIA FOX-PITT

This willowy redhead is the 28-year-old sister of the Olympic eventer William Fox Pitt. Made friends with Kate while at Marlborough College and is one of her strongest supporters. She looked after Kate during the split with William and persuaded her to join the Sisterhood, the first all-women dragon boat crew who performed the record-breaking paddle across the English Channel (although Kate dropped out before it took place). Alicia works as a tour guide for Wild Frontiers, an adventure travel company.

THE VAN CUTSEMS

The VCs are the four strapping sons of Hugh Van Custem, an old Cambridge chum of Prince Charles, who owns an estate near Sandringham. Childhood friends of William and Harry and all great fans of Kate. Last summer William took Kate to the wedding of Army officer Nicholas Van Cutsem to Alice Hadden-Paton, whose older brother Harry is another Eton contemporary of William’s.

JECCA CRAIG

Daughter of conservationist Ian Craig, who owns a game reserve in Kenya, Jecca was pursued by William, who had fallen for her on his first trip to Africa. A bemused Jecca went through a jokey mock engagement ceremony one boisterous night but had to deny it when the news leaked out on William’s return to London. She was embarrassed as she was going out with Henry Ropner, who knew William at Eton, but William was serious about her, putting her next to him at his Out of Africa themed 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle. At first Kate treated her as a rival but they are now firm friends.